As a fisherman and leader of a national alliance of fishers, PABLO ROSALES sees firsthand the impacts of free trade liberalization and climate change on fishers and their communities. He is on the way to Copenhagen (COP 15) from Geneva (7th WTO Ministerial) with the Trade to Climate Caravan to fight for the fishers’ right to access and control their fishing grounds. While on the Caravan, he spoke to MARY LOU MALIG of Focus on the Global South and CECILIA OLIVET of Transnational Institute about his struggles and how recognizing fishers’ rights plays a central role in achieving social and climate justice.

How did you get involved in the struggles for social justice?
My parents were fishermen and upland farmers in Samar in Western Philippines who didn’t have their own land. When I was 9 years old, I started going with my father to fish, learning how to use a paddleboat. We moved a number of times till we settled in Bataan in Central Luzon and that’s where I started in earnest to fish and stopped going to school. I was 13 years old then. Several years after some activists invited me to a discussion and from then on I entered into the struggle. I went underground during the Marcos dictatorship and organized coastal communities. After the EDSA Revolution, I was no longer underground and continued organizing and struggling for our rights.

What organization are you representing now and your main campaigns?
I am the President of PANGISDA-Pilipinas (Progressive Alliance of Fisherfolk) and a council member of KM (Fisherfolk Movement of the Philippines). Our main campaign is the protection of fishing grounds for the livelihood of the communities for now and future generations. Subsumed under this main struggle are the campaigns against illegal fishing methods, entry of foreign industrial fishers into municipal waters and the campaign against the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Free Trade Agreements.

How are the fishers and their communities affected by the climate crisis?
We are experiencing rising sea levels and stronger typhoons. The last two super typhoons that hit the Philippines wiped out several coastal communities, destroying homes and livelihoods. Our boats and fishing implements were all destroyed. We have also been experiencing ever decreasing fish catches because of coral reefs dying and the loss of mangroves.

How do you see the connection between free trade and climate change?
Free trade and climate change are not only linked, they come hand in hand. They co-exist in this relationship and climate change can only be solved if it is separated from free trade. Free trade has pushed the earth to its limits and is responsible for the destruction and depletion of natural resources. For us, we see this in the destruction of mangroves for the development of industrial aquacultures. The loss of mangroves, a natural defense system translates into loss of fish breeding grounds and allows for big waves and the rising sea to flood the coastal communities. The WTO is calling for further liberalization under the Doha “Development” Round and this will push the planet further into the brink. This round will not bring development nor will solve the climate crisis. We need to stop free trade and have solutions to the climate outside the neoliberal system.  

What do you think of the market-based solutions being presented to solve the climate crisis?
We are against market-based solutions to the climate crisis because these do not address the root of the problem. The proposed solutions are all about buying and selling and making profit out of the crisis. These will not help the people but rather help the corporations.

What solutions do you propose to solve the climate crisis?
We need to develop and protect our local fisheries industry and community fishing grounds and promote sustainable fishing. We need to do a continuous coastal clean up, mangrove reforestation and promote renewable energy. But all of these should be outside the market and controlled by the fisherfolk and their communities. An end to the free trade regime will also contribute to the slowing down of runaway climate change. We therefore need to keep struggling against the WTO, demand that the WTO get out of fisheries and that the Doha “Development” Round should be prevented from concluding. 
 
Why are you on the Caravan and what do you hope to achieve in Copenhagen?
I got on the Caravan to join and take part in the global struggle for climate justice and for an end to neoliberal free trade and the WTO. My hope is to voice out the situation of our sector and to be in solidarity with people of different cultures, sectors and movements. I have no illusion that these negotiations will bring about real solutions to the climate crisis. I believe that real solutions will come from the unity and joining hands of people in finding a sustainable way of living.

www.climatecaravan.org